


you're my golden hour

by caihongs



Series: baby, you're like lightning in a bottle [2]
Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Bliss, Established Relationship, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Moon Hyungseo | Kevin is Whipped, Trans Kevin Moon, Trans Male Character, Weddings, i just think jukev is so neat (2), please read the a/n!, the other boyz are mentioned!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27262138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caihongs/pseuds/caihongs
Summary: Kevin decided pretty much right there and then, in that cramped, grimey bathroom, that he wanted to love all up on Hot Stuff for the rest of his life.You're My Golden Hour (2020): A five-act play in which protagonist Kevin Moon lives through a day in the span of months, learns just exactly what love is, and proposes to Juyeon Lee.
Relationships: Bae Joonyoung | Jacob/Kim Younghoon/Lee Jaehyun | Hyunjae, Lee Juyeon/Moon Hyungseo | Kevin
Series: baby, you're like lightning in a bottle [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990561
Comments: 14
Kudos: 62





	you're my golden hour

**Author's Note:**

> hello i'm back (again)! i seriously couldn't stray away from these two and upon watching the couch talk where they were hanging out with the puppies and kevin took a photo of juyeon for twitter, my brain exploded and here we are
> 
> caution: there's a line where kevin faints after "This is the first lie they tell." so please skip over that paragraph if you need to! 
> 
> and again, if you have any concerns or things you feel i should change regarding my characterisation of kevin please let me know through twitter or cc 
> 
> title taken from 'golden hour' by kacey musgraves

ACT I: DAYBREAK

Kevin decided pretty much right there and then, in that cramped, grimey bathroom, that he wanted to love all up on Hot Stuff for the rest of his life. 

Too quick perhaps, but Kevin’s always known he’s had a good intuition. It’s how he figured out most things in his life, give or take a few other _enlightening_ experiences that have made and shaped the new and improved Kevin Moon, but his good intuition has always been an innate aspect of his personality. Jacob says its his Kevin Compass— Kompass for short— something akin to his own magnet that leads him to wherever he’s supposed to be.

Sure enough, it lands him right here in this beefy man’s arms. 

Okay, Juyeon isn’t _beefy_ but he packs something in those guns of his that definitely could kill a man. Yet, Juyeon, sweet little Juyeon who Kevin is sure must have been an archangel of sorts in his past life, dishing out gifts stuffed with his goodness, like neighbourhood cats that get coddled by every single tenant within the block, or the stray flower petals that gets caught in one’s hair after staying a moment too long in the park at the dawn of spring. Kevin thinks Juyeon could make a pretty Persephone to his Hades, in a world where they’re somewhat morally corrupt, probably related, and Kevin isn’t incarcerated for kidnapping. 

But right now, they’re just Juyeon and Kevin and Kevin and Juyeon. Kevin is reacquainted with the comforting weight on his shoulders when Juyeon comes home, beaten to a pulp with the words of literary legends and their respective canonical works, and wanting to cuddle and listen to slow Korean ballads on their crackly Google Home because of an unfortunate water spill, and he remembers that he’s the lucky one to be welcoming him home.

It’s every little thing compounded on top of each other, like those mystical pebble towers by the shore of the sea, each level holding a trove of secrets, that makes up Kevin’s adoration for his boyfriend. The sequined skirt Juyeon saw at the mall on his lunch break and bought for Kevin because he thought it’d look nice on him. The innumerable dancing dates they’ve gone on because it reminds them of how they met and because they’re both killer on their feet. Juyeon threading his fingers between Kevin’s when he wraps his arms around the other’s torso when they go to bed, thumbs rubbing circles on the back of his hands and single-handedly bringing down the curtains on Kevin’s restless mind. Juyeon putting a new bulk pack of watercolour pads into his desk when Kevin’s on his last, each page a decalcomanie of the last. Juyeon telling him that he’s capable and worthy whenever Kevin thinks he’s anything but, going as so far to punctuate his words with kisses to placate the warring parts of Kevin’s brain when the night is young and vicious in what it likes to tear apart with its cold hands. 

It’s all of these stones that have the Kompass pointing towards, ‘I want this for the rest of my life’. Kevin Moon, having been terrified of and not ready for any kind of long-lasting, significant-enough-to-hurt commitment for the last twenty-two years, wants to get married to a man he’s only been with for just over two years. That being said, time doesn’t matter if you know your connection to each other would occur in every single lifetime, but Kevin’s also never puts his eggs in the basket this early. Banking on Juyeon to be the greatest husband ever is the safest bet he could ever make, but Kevin, much like his boyfriend, is incredibly slow with the program. Five acts behind everyone else, and oblivious to the reactions when the female side-character inevitably dies when he’s only just witnessing the tragic hero scaling the tower to find her. A combination between Shakespeare and Rapunzel, and Kevin is still here, wondering if Rapunzel will at least be allowed to see the lanterns. That kind of oblivious.

  
  


Anyways, Kevin wants to husband Juyeon up at the tender age of twenty-two, but they’ve got plenty of time before that. Juyeon’s on his way to finishing college, applying for internships left and right for every publishing firm in the city, and Kevin has got a ways to go in terms of what he wants to do after university. Whether it’s going into some sort of art therapy, or if he really wants to start up that small business, or dedicate a year or two to volunteering, he’s got a myriad of options to choose from and he’ll just have to see where his true north lies next. 

  
  


But first, the Kompass leads him to a pet shelter. 

So Kevin does what Kevin knows best and goes for it.

  
  


“A DOG?!” Chanhee, Jacob, and probably Younghoon, all screech into the receiver and almost blow Kevin’s ear off. 

  
  


“I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF!” All the poodle needed to do was blink at him once and he was a man down. 

  
  


“What is Juyeon going to say?” Jacob all but sighs helplessly and Kevin hears the door click open.

  
  


“Guess we’re about to find out.” Click. The door swings open.

  
  


“Hey babe— _who is this?_ ” 

  
  


Baby Poodle meets Big Poodle. A collaboration only countered by that of the Earth and the rock that created the Moon in all her silver glory. 

  
  


“Whose baby is this, hm?” Juyeon coos while the puppy licks every part of his face, and Kevin shudders at how adorable the sight is.

  
  


“Ours.” 

  
  


Juyeon looks up at him from the floor, holding the animal up from his face Simba-style with saliva drying on his temple, and his eyes illuminate like someone injected molten starlight into them. 

God, is Kevin in love.

  
  


“Ours?” Juyeon echoes back, and Kevin nods, trying his best to not burst into tears.

  
  


_“I love you Kevin Moon,”_ Juyeon sings to the tune of Only You by the Platters, while he lets the puppy do a number on the hem of his t-shirt, still looking at Kevin like he wants to— 

  
  


“Love you more Ju.” Kevin bends down to press a kiss into his boyfriend’s hair before he hauls him up on shaky knees.

  
  


“Come on, we need to dog-proof our home.” If Kevin knows anything, it’s the power of forums and wikiHow on teaching you the most essential skills and information for free.

  
  


Them co-parenting a dog is just one of the many factors that leads Kevin to making the first promise he’s willing to uphold for the rest of his life. 

  
  


ACT II: SUNRISE

Good things happen at the coming of the sun. This is what baloney he came up with on the way to the cafe to convince himself, with no evidence to back it up. His parents don’t remember what time he was born so he can’t even put his birth up there.

‘Good things happen at the coming of the sun’, he repeats to himself, hoping this is one of them.

  
  


“Changmin, I have something to tell you.” Kevin says to them over a warm cup of coffee. Changmin narrows their eyes at him before gesturing at him to go on.

  
  


“I want to marry Juyeon.” 

  
  


Changmin slaps their hand over their mouth before any of the chewed up carrot cake in their mouth can confetti-canon itself all over Kevin’s made-up face.

  
  


“You want to _what?!”_ Changmin repeats, eyes twice their large size and Kevin, expecting this kind of response, nods solemnly in response. 

  
  


“You heard me right the first time. I want to marry your best friend. I am just a boy, standing in front of you, asking you to—” 

  
  


“Stop. Shut up. Don’t continue that line. Yes. Marry him. Do whatever you want. I don’t think I’m—” They gesture vaguely at their surroundings. “Here anymore.” 

  
  


Changmin slams their hands on the table and their forehead hits the wood with a dull thud. 

  
  


“Are you okay?” Kevin is more concerned than he is ecstatic and Changmin raises their head very slowly to look up at Kevin.

  
  


“Fuck, you’re like the best thing to ever happen to Juyeon. To _us_. I don’t even know what to say— are you going to do it now? Like, I know you’re probably dying to but Juyeon’s got midterms coming up and I don’t know if that’d be a good idea—” Changmin doesn’t usually ramble, doesn’t at all actually, and the sight is half amusing, half Earth-shattering. 

  
  


Kevin really just got the approval of his boyfriend’s best friend, someone whom he’s grown to love just as much. They share more in common than Kevin could ever properly put into measured prose, and Kevin finds solace in their hands just as much as he does in Juyeon’s. So to hear to that they think Kevin is the best thing to happen to Juyeon, let alone their friendship group, is enough to have him all choked up. 

  
  


“You know how stressed he gets during exam block so— Kevin? Are you crying?” Changmin stage-whispers and Kevin sniffles.

  
  


“No.” 

  
  


“Oh Kev—” Changmin reaches over to wipe Kevin’s tears with the pads of their fingertips, one part pitiful, one part empathetic, and two parts adoring. 

  
  


“I mean— I’m not going to get down on one knee _now_ , with midterms, us barely hanging onto financial stability, the dog, but I’ve just been, you know, thinking about this too much for it to be just a passing thought and everybody was definitely going to call me batshit insane for wanting to spend eternity with him so early on so I thought I’d tell you, because bullet journaling wasn’t cutting it anymore and—” 

  
  


“You guys are going to be so happy.” Changmin says softly, their hands now on Kevin’s, rubbing those same circles onto the back of his hands, and Kevin, fragile soul Kevin who for all the opulence he exudes, tattooed into his existence since time immemorial, falls in the hands of the one other person in his life who understands him more than anyone else.

  
  


Changmin spends the rest of the day with Kevin waltzing in and around the city, going to exhibits and pop-up stores, thrift-shore hopping, and when Juyeon asks him how his date was when Kevin makes it back home, two hundred dollars lighter with bags straining his wrists, Kevin kisses him on the mouth and smiles.

  
  


Good things do happen in the coming of the sun, and he has proof. 

  
  


ACT III: MIDDAY

They almost break up, and at a wedding at that.

They hit a road bump and Kevin didn’t know if they’d be able to get over it like they have in the past. Not like that, with Juyeon pleading for Kevin to understand him and Kevin being unable to reconcile his own differences within himself, let alone with his lover.

  
  
  


Jacob asking Kevin to be his best man was bound to happen. Kevin had bawled right there in the studio until every part of his being was sucked of all moisture and Jacob laughed at him before hugging him and telling him that he should’ve already guessed it by now.

Then it was Juyeon being Jaehyun’s best man. Another inevitability, and Younghoon with Chanhee. The ceremony was to take place in Younghoon’s family estate back in Korea, and the three of them would celebrate their unity surrounded by friends and family. Kevin, Chanhee, and Sangyeon were going to sing for them, Juyeon and Changmin had an elaborate performance up their sleeves, Hyunjoon and Eric were unofficial flower boys, holding the hands of the to-be-husbands’ nieces and nephews, and somehow, Haknyeon and Sunwoo had finessed a doughnut wall, as well as several other games and challenges to seek out the next wedding couple. 

It was going to be amazing and Kevin, while sitting with the rest of the groomsmen and best men at rehearsal, dreamt about what his and Juyeon’s could be like.

  
  


Then it starts small like water licking at the shore before it rears its ugly head, the high tide during a tempest. 

Juyeon is stressed for reasons unknown when he comes home from work one night, and Kevin demands to know why. The key word being ‘demand’ and it could be said that this was the catalyst for it all.

  
  


“I’m fine babe, let’s just eat dinner.” Juyeon runs a hand through his hair and tries to give Kevin one of his placating smiles but Kevin isn’t having it. 

  
  


“What’s wrong Ju?” His voice comes out more icy than he intends, and Juyeon’s smile dissolves.

  
  


“It’s fine, just a bad day at work.” Juyeon was never good at lying and Kevin, despite the immediate regret that fills his chest upon seeing his boyfriend’s face harden, presses on.

  
  


“Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asks tentatively but it’s more rhetorical than anything. They always share whatever they’re feeling with each other, why is this time any different?

  
  


“I— they’re cutting people starting from next week. Kev, I don’t— I don’t know if—” Juyeon drops his cutlery on the table and brings his hands to his eyes. Kevin runs from his side of the table and holds him. 

  
  


“Oh Ju,” Kevin whispers into his hair, kneeling on the ground as he rubs Juyeon’s back. Juyeon hiccups, breath stuttered by his tears and Kevin, for the first time, doesn’t know what to do to make him feel better. It’s not a secret to the both of them that Juyeon hasn’t been able to keep up with the fast pace of how they operate at the firm, with manuscripts on drafts on back to back deadlines, all expected to be submitted on time no matter what the schedule is for that employee. The fact that they don’t even have a large team and delegation doesn’t have the same impacts as it would in a larger company, it’s no surprise that Juyeon’s been sinking for a while now. Kevin, though knowing all of this, has stayed mum because he knows how much his boyfriend loves his job and couldn’t bear to bring it up to him. Maybe that was on him too.

  
  


“It’s— fuck Kevin, how are we going to pay rent? And Tofu’s bills from last month—” Juyeon halts but Kevin continues his sentence for him.

  
  


“Government cheques and commissions aren’t going to get us far, I know. I’ll go job-hunting again, at least until you grab another spot somewhere else.” Kevin, now in his senior year, doesn’t know how he’s going to manage it, already dropping his casual job at Uniqlo, but he can’t let Juyeon hold the burden on his own. They’re a unit now, have been for a long time now, and Heaven forbid Kevin falls back on his own responsibilities when he’s thought about a forever with this man.

  
  


“You have school Kev, I don’t want you to burn out.” Juyeon looks up from the crook of Kevin’s shoulder and Kevin shakes his head.

  
  


“It’s fine Juyeon. We’ll be okay.” He kisses him softly, and Juyeon, tasting like salt, kisses him back.

  
  


This is the first lie they tell.

  
  


Then Kevin faints at home and this is their first red flag that they’re not going to be okay after all. After the hospital visit, Juyeon curses himself for months on end while jobhunting to the point that his voice goes hoarse and he’s getting three hours a night and the both of them have pushed themselves far beyond their limits. Whoever said money didn’t buy you happiness was a fucking liar. Kevin tries to make sure he doesn’t cripple his wrist from drawing and that they’re both eating three meals a day, and for the first time, Juyeon doesn’t feel warm to him. A cold body he holds when he’s even colder. 

The way they’ve broken has been so immediate with the loss of one factor that Kevin wonders how they survived for so long after all this time. Even when Juyeon finally does get a job at another firm thirty minutes away and easily acclimates to the environment, Kevin is still suffering the damages. He leaves his job as a waiter in the lower-end of town, sick of the men that populate the district after dark and leave their eyes lingering for far too long on his figure, and Juyeon doesn’t know about it until he realises Kevin is home so often. 

  
  


“I was tired Ju. I’m going to open up more commission slots and ask the firms on my contacts if they need anything else done. That should be enough, right?” Kevin almost sounds like he’s making a desperate plea to his boyfriend and Juyeon’s face falls.

  
  


“Babe, are you okay?” Kevin nods resolutely. He will be, is what matters. 

  
  


“Kev, do you want to tell me what’s wrong?” Juyeon kneels in front of him, hands wrapped around Kevin’s calloused ones, and rubbing those circles again. 

  
  


“I’m sorry I’m not enough Ju.” 

  
  


He breaks like shards of a mirror, a hazard to everyone else but himself and more importantly, unable to be fixed. 

  
  


“Kevin _no_ , you’re— you’re everything, I’m so sorry.” Juyeon grabs hold of his shoulders and like that, it’s Kevin’s turn. Juyeon soothes him with his hands in his hair and on his back. His suit smells like brewed coffee and their mild detergent powder and for the first time for a long time, he’s warm.

  
  


Juyeon kisses him until Kevin stops crying, and his fists are bunched up in his lap when he tells Kevin that he’ll make life easier for the both of them. That Kevin needs to take a break and Juyeon will take him dancing like they used to before, and that they can still watch movies at the drive-in on the weekends. That they’ll be okay. 

  
  


Kevin prays and prays to God, whoever is wrenching his compass loose from his ribcage and threatening to toss it out to sea, that it’s true.

  
  


He does end up taking a break, albeit a shorter one than Juyeon wanted him to, but he’s most sad when he’s not busy so it must be done. He cleans the house, takes Tofu to the dog park and plays with her for hours at a time, actually catches up on his homework and assignments that Juyeon managed to wring extensions for on his behalf, and Chanhee comes over to give him the best pampering he’s had in ages. A massage for his hands and back, a bath, nail painting. He also bought him a new binder since Kevin’s was falling apart at the seams at this point, which couldn’t have been cheap and Chanhee refuses to tell him how much. 

  
  


“You needed it Kevin.” ‘ _It didn’t cost anything to me’_ is what Chanhee tells him with his eyes, those blue-lensed eyes of his, and Kevin cries again.

  
  


They’ll be okay. They’ll be okay. They’ll be okay. 

  
  


Juyeon gets a pay rise and Kevin scores new clientele from the copious amounts of artwork and design he’s pumped out over the past month and published on his portfolio. 

  
  


And yet, Kevin’s intuition fails him again.

  
  


The wedding is upon them closer than they both realise and Kevin is much more affected from the past year than he realised.

  
  


“There’s this exhibit that they’re having at the National Museum while we’re there, you’d love it Kev.” Juyeon is animated, showing Kevin the website and flicking through the gallery. Kevin catches the sight of the price before anything else and shakes his head.

  
  


“It’s okay Ju, we don’t have to go.” Kevin says quietly, offering him a smile to patch it up and Juyeon stares at him.

  
  


“We’re okay Kevin, we can go. If you want.” Juyeon tacks on the end, hand finding its way to Kevin’s and Kevin shakes his head again.

  
  


“I don’t want to go.” And that’s that. Because Juyeon doesn’t push and Kevin doesn’t take no for an answer.

  
  


They pack their bags, send Tofu off to Juyeon’s parents and get on the plane to the motherland. It’s been a long time since they’ve been back, and Kevin can’t wait for Juyeon to meet his grandparents. They eat their weight in street food, Changmin and Sunwoo get stranded in the countryside on a date to the beach, Jacob almost breaks his leg making a run for the bus to the patisserie where their cake is being made, and Hyunjoon finally asks Eric out on a date. Several other things happen, one of which involving Chanhee draping himself for all to see at a gay bar they go to one night and Sangyeon accidentally spilling his cocktail on him, making him a sight for all to see with Gatorade-blue all down his front. Younghoon cries when he sees Jaehyun’s face at breakfast at the estate three days before the wedding, overwhelmed by his emotions and Jacob cackles at his fiancé before comforting him.

Juyeon has made Kevin feel like a million dollars by the amount of love and attention he’s been receiving over the past few days. On top of that, his grandpa played a game of soccer with Juyeon on the weekend when they went to visit and won, which made him the happiest man alive, and his grandma loved Juyeon to death as expected. The fact that he bought her a woollen sweater he thought would look nice on her made her feel like the luckiest girl alive. (“And he cooks! Hyungseo-ah, how did you find someone like him?!”)

Kevin just laughed and wondered how happy they’d be to hear that he wanted to marry him.

  
  


“How are you doing, my liege?” Juyeon asks him as they sit themselves on the couch, the rest of their friends strewn across the living room, watching the movie on the wide-screened TV.

  
  


“Absolutely wonderful. And you, kind sir?” 

  
  


“I am simply a reflection of your emotions.” Juyeon whispers and Kevin pushes his face away.

  
  


“Stupid,” he says fondly and Juyeon’s eyes crinkle. Warm, warm, warm.

  
  
  


It’s merely hours before the wedding and Juyeon can’t find his tie and Kevin hasn’t done his hair yet. Although the tea ceremonies went smoothly, with Younghoon again, unable to keep himself together, seeing his future husbands bowing down to his parents, now that they’ve gotten to reception, the husbands have not been seen together for the last six hours. The entire house feels like an explosion waiting to happen. 

  
  


“Babe, have you seen my pocket square?” Juyeon calls out from the bathroom and Kevin responds with a “Let me go get it!”

  
  


Rummaging through their bags, he finds the yellow piece of fabric and something else. 

  
  


Kevin’s compass falls to the ocean floor and he’s lost.

  
  


“Did you find it—” Juyeon’s eyes land on what’s in Kevin’s hands before they reach Kevin’s eyes.

  
  


“Why are we going to Japan?” Kevin’s voice is watery and Juyeon doesn’t understand.

  
  


“It was supposed to be a surprise but I was thinking we could stay here for a few more days and then go for a week? Just us two. I told my parents already—”

  
  


“Juyeon, we’re not… this is not—” _Okay_. We’re not okay. We’re not okay. We’re not okay— 

  
  


Kevin’s skin goes hot when Juyeon faces him properly.

  
  


“I thought it’d be nice.” Juyeon says shortly, not expecting to meet this response and Kevin knows why and he should be happy. He should be warm but he’s not. 

  
  


“I need to go back to work Ju, and I— we’re not. We’re not in the spot to be going to Japan for an extra week on top of this.” He tries to stay calm, because if he yells like how he wants to, whatever he says is going to fall on deaf ears. 

  
  


“Kevin, I thought we were past this. You didn’t want to go to the museum—”

  
  


“And you thought I’d be okay flying to another country?! Juyeon, we _know_ how it felt to not be okay, walking corpses for the past year and just when we got back to our normal—” Kevin’s skin is cracking like porcelain in the face of his lover. Juyeon’s mouth opens, closes, before his eyebrows set into a line and he holds onto Kevin’s arms, warm hands on the back of his forearms.

  
  


“You were hurting and I had no idea. Do you know how much it broke me to see you crying, Kevin? You hadn’t let yourself breathe because of me, and now I’m trying to make up for what I did.” Juyeon holds back what he wants to say. _I thought you’d be happy. Grateful. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry._

  
  


“I don’t want to go Ju. I— I’m scared.” They have a wedding to get to. Juyeon’s hair is done, and his suit is pressed and clean, and he looks heavenly. 

  
  


“I won’t let it happen again Kevin, I promise you.” It comes off his lips so quickly, so resolute that Kevin thinks it might just be the truth.

  
  


“You don’t know that.” _You can’t stop what you don’t know._

  
  


“Do you not think I’ll stay at this job?” _Do you not think I’m enough?_

  
  


“No, _no_. Juyeon, please, you have to understand—” Kevin pleads because they’re not seeing the same sky and Juyeon drops his hands.

  
  


“I’ll cancel the trip.” _You don’t._

  
  


“No Juyeon, please, listen to me.” Kevin squeezes the words out of his throat and Juyeon turns and looks at him with grey eyes.

  
  


“We have to go.” 

  
  


They don’t shout, they don’t cry, they don’t explode into a million indistinct pieces. They crumble like the foundations of a house that can’t stand its own weight, and Kevin, yellow pocket square in hand, follows him wordlessly.

Cold, cold, cold. 

  
  


ACT IV: TWILIGHT  
  


It’s a beautiful sight. They get pronounced husbands by Sangyeon, who is the only one out of their friends who could pull off the marriage celebrant act, and they kiss, cut the tiered cake, and burst into song and dance when Sunwoo, the DJ for the night, puts on Britney Spears.

Kevin tries his best to forget, even when Juyeon cleans up his mouth for him at dinner and they pretend for the time being, that they’re okay. They’re almost too comfortable with it.

Changmin sends him a look from across the table that Kevin responds with an imploring one. _Don’t ask._ Changmin leaves it alone, feeding Sunwoo another bite of their steak, but Kevin knows they’re not going to stay that way for long. 

Juyeon’s hand never leaves Kevin’s side, but it’s cold and Kevin isn’t sure how they’re going to get out of this one. 

  
  


The MC for the night is Jaehyun, impeccable at bringing up the tension in the middle of the Korean countryside. 

  
  


“AHEM! Esteemed guests, I know this is a bit unconventional, but ha! Isn’t this whole event a little bit unconventional,” he pauses to stare lovingly at his husbands sitting beside him and the audience collectively ‘aw’s. 

  
  


“But anyway! I know we had our vows from earlier, but those didn’t quite encapsulate the story of us. I think all of you present have witnessed us at different stages of our lives, but not exactly how we came to be this incredible trio of husbands. There’s also three of us, which means a lot of stories each and everyone is going to have to sit tight for the next few hours.” The audience laughs and Jaehyun beams. 

  
  


“So here we go. I’ve got the mic, so I’ll go first, is that okay my loves?” Jaehyun asks the two of them, and they nod earnestly. 

  
  


“I met these two men at two different times. Younghoon, I met outside my mother’s operating room, when he came out and told me that she was going to be okay, and I cried into his arms very unprofessionally more for him than me, because my dad and sister were half an hour away. Safe to say, that was the start of something new.” 

  
  


Kevin knows he’s going to start crying some time in the next few minutes and when Juyeon turns around to take a sip of his wine, he squeezes Kevin’s hand again. The compass tip swivels weakly.

  
  


“This handsome doctor was nothing like what I expected when I caught him at a bar the next week. He was dead in the eyes and still rapping his heart out to an unenthusiastic audience of who I came to know as Chanhee and Changmin.” 

  
  


The two in question snort and wave to the rest of the guests who titter in response. 

  
  


“We hit it off that night, and I’m sure the two remember that I was a godawful flirt but they still gave me permission to ask for Younghoon’s number, so I think I made a pretty good first impression. Even though it felt like he was doing a million things a week and saving countless lives on top, while I was trying to climb up the corporate ladder, we met in the middle and I realised just how wonderful he was. Sweet, charming, clumsy but endearingly so, and someone who would sacrifice everything to see people happy. Even if it was his own happiness. I saw this when we met Jacob.”

  
  


All of their friends know bits and pieces of how this happened, but to hear it from Jaehyun’s perspective is new.

  
  


“I met Jacob first. The sweet musician who accidentally spilled his coffee on me like we were the protagonists in a romcom. He was running to an appointment at a studio and I was the lucky man in his way. I remember him being cute but that was it.” Jacob hides behind Younghoon and the audience laughs again. 

  
  


Kevin remembers Jacob telling him about this hot guy that he spilt searing hot coffee on and Kevin had laughed. 

  
  


_“Who knows, you guys might meet again.” Jacob frowned._

  
  


_“Don’t get my hopes up, Moon.”_

  
  


“And then we both met him at the river, where he was busking for the night. He recognised me and I recognised him, and I told Younghoon that this was the guy that spilt his coffee all over my shirt. Younghoon smiled, worked his pretty face and Jacob I remember very vividly, blushed, even under the cover of night.” Younghoon kisses Jacob’s red cheeks and the audience coos again while Jaehyun melts on the podium.

  
  


“But that was that. It was highly unlikely we were going to meet again, and if we did, it really was the work of fate. And the moment I expressed that thought to myself, I saw him again on television! I had only known his name at this point but when he was performing in front of a pretty big crowd on that morning breakfast show, I was intrigued. Searched him up, came across his EPs, listened to them on the way to work and really fell in love with his voice.”

  
  


The night is dark, but still sticky warm like how Korea is in the summer and Kevin sheds his blazer. He meets Jacob’s eyes and Kevin shoots him a thumbs up. Jacob smiles wide and Kevin’s heart grows proportionally in size.

  
  


“I ended up befriending Jacob, and it was becoming glaringly obvious that something was amiss. I loved Younghoon so much, to the point where I knew for a fact I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, but I also knew someone else occupied a growing space in my life. The shiny part of Jacob’s celebrity persona wore off when I got to know him properly, like how he was definitely a dork in his normal day-to-day life, definitely had a crush on crusty-fedora-wearing-Jason Mraz as a middle schooler, and was an overwhelmingly kind and wonderful person inside and out. This realisation came out more often in conversation with Younghoon than I intended, and he offered to break up with me.” 

  
  


The crowd is silent, and the three of them are not stoic by any means, but almost caught in a collective daze, remembering the time as clear as day.

  
  


“I said no, are you crazy?! And he told me that it was clear I loved someone else, and that he would rather see me happy than with someone who he didn’t love the same anymore. Then it was long weeks that turned into months while I tried to gather myself and my thoughts, while I was apart from the two people I loved the most in my life at that point. Jacob was on tour and Younghoon had stayed with his brother while we took our break. Then, I came across an article about polyamory. It was hard to communicate what exactly made a throuple even with all the research I’d done, and because Younghoon and Jacob didn’t know each other as well as I knew each of them individually, it felt selfish of me to be the only one wanting this. Wanting to love two people at the same time and I thought I was the problem.” Jaehyun brings the mic away from his face, and Younghoon stops Jacob from running onto the stage and wiping away their husband’s tears.

  
  


“But Jacob, he thought to take it on his own and confront Younghoon. He can tell you about this later, but when I came home one day, while they’d been in kahoots for weeks now, I found the two of them sitting on the couch, talking about photography over cups of tea. The sight made me burst into tears and the rest of that night was spent consoling me, and talking about what we were. What we could become.” Jaehyun dabs away his tears with a napkin before he flips to the next page.

  
  


“It was a weird three months at first, but once we got through that, realised what we were comfortable with and weren’t, everything else came like second nature. We shared three times the love as every other couple in a committed relationship did, and that came with some extra bonuses.” The crowd balks and Jaehyun openly cackles at Jacob, who’s gone for hiding beneath the table. Younghoon’s ears go red. 

  
  


“And that brings us up to speed to now. Jacob’s parents told Younghoon and I that they trusted us with him, and would never let us see the light of day if he wasn’t okay, which was very fair and not light enough of a punishment in my opinion. Younghoon’s said that we’d given him enough happiness to last a lifetime already but go ahead, marry our son, he’s all yours. And mine, well, _omma_ and _appa_ are sitting on my left side, and I know they’ve got plenty to say later tonight but they gave me off with no qualms, because both Jacob and Younghoon were the only ones they trusted to deal with their disaster of a son.” All three sets of parents are either in tears or laughing or both at this point and Jaehyun turns to face them front on.

  
  


“Thank you for everything you’ve given us,” he says in Korean, making a ninety-degree bow with his hands folded over his stomach, and when he gets up, he sends them another smile and wink before he turns around again to face his partners.

  
  


“To Cob and Hoonie, you guys mean the world to me and I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to making sure you feel that every single day from here on out. I love you.” He shoots them a finger heart and then a bigger hand heart which has the crowd whooping.

  
  


Kevin is bawling at this point, starting from when Jaehyun started talking about Jacob, and Chanhee is right there with him.

  
  


“Bastard, he’s such a good speaker.” Chanhee utters softly in between his sobs and Kevin nods before covering his face with his arms again.

  
  


A hand comes to squeeze his knee this time and Kevin peers up to find Juyeon, watery-eyed and smiling at him.

  
  


They’re still not okay, but Kevin knows they will be. If the day follows a cycle, good things should happen at the coming down of the sun as well. 

  
  


“Do you need water?”

  
  


Kevin shakes his head and opts for keeping Juyeon’s hand on his knee with his own.

  
  


While Jaehyun goes to comfort a sobbing Younghoon, Jacob takes the stage.

  
  


“Here we go: Jacob POV.” The crowd, in amidst their own tears, cheer in anticipation.

  
  


“When I told my best friend and best man Kevin,” Jacob points to him in the crowd and the spotlight follows. Kevin does a little wave and jazz hands before diving back into his spot, red with embarrassment. 

  
  


“That I spilt coffee on the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life, he laughed at me before saying ‘who knows, you guys might meet again’ and I told him, upset, to not get my hopes up. And now here we are, married.” He looks over at his husbands, and they’ve both melted into one person, looking just as adoringly at him. 

  
  


“I’d fallen in love with a taken man and it killed me inside because I knew that it wasn’t right. Younghoon was probably catching on and hurting immensely from a friendship that wasn’t supposed to go anywhere else but did. So when I sought out Younghoon myself, having showed up at the hospital with an offer of coffee, I knew something had to happen before I went on tour.” Jacob hadn’t alway been a great speaker, but Kevin knows how far he’s come and how much he’s grown to be the man he is today, standing on that podium and adorning the happiness he’s deserved for his entire life. It brings out another set of waterworks and Chanhee silently offers him another tissue.

  
  


“We talked. I apologised profusely and told him that nothing had happened between us, to which he said, ‘I know’ because Jaehyun wouldn’t do that. But I could see he was hurt and hurt badly, so I did what I knew best at the time, and told him I would leave. Run even. Being on tour would help me personally stay away, and I promised to end my gigs on this side of the city and forget about him, because I knew they were meant to be.” Jacob coughs and Younghoon has resorted to shoving his face into a towel offered to him by a passing waitress. Jaehyun is holding his husband in one arm and using his other to wipe away his falling tears. It must be both cathartic and painful to live through this again.

  
  


“But Younghoon being Younghoon, didn’t want me to. He wanted to see Jaehyun happy and if it was with me, so be it. _I_ couldn’t accept that, because I’d heard so much about Younghoon in the time I’d spent with Jaehyun, and knew just how enamoured he was with him. It was love in its purest form. I was never against getting to know Younghoon, maybe even to the same extent I knew Jaehyun, but time never permit us to and Jaehyun tried his best but it was always in vain because of the different lives we led.” 

  
  


“Safe to say, although that initial conversation gave both of us some sort of closure, I wasn’t going to give up. I knew Jaehyun and I had developed something special but I also knew that Jaehyun wasn’t the Jaehyun I knew without Younghoon. So the moment I landed back down in Seoul, I marched up to the hospital again, and half-asked, half-demanded Younghoon to go on a date with me.” The audience collectively gasps and Eric clutches onto Hyunjoon’s pearls for extra effect when the spotlight comes shining on them.

  
  


“Ballsy I know. He was startled and also dead on his feet after his shift, so I offered to at least drive him home instead of him taking public transport and he reluctantly accepted. But in that forty minute car ride we shared, I learnt that he wanted to be a singer before a surgeon, had a pet dog at home named Bori, loved to take photos, and entertained modelling and acting for a brief time in his teens. I was intrigued by him, entirely apart from the fact that he was the love of Jaehyun’s life, and the fact that he was truly a sight for sore eyes. But I was intrigued and really, I couldn’t let him say no to another date.” Younghoon lets his eyes peek from the top of the white towel and they crinkle at Jacob. Another sight for sore eyes.

  
  


“When I dropped him off, Younghoon told me he wouldn’t mind meeting again. And that brings us up to surprising Jaehyun at home, and the rest is history. Thank you.” The crowd cheers and claps as Jacob clears his throat once, and looks over to his right.

  
  


“To Jae and Hoonie, I truly thank God and whoever else is watching us right now for leading me to you two. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  
  


Younghoon steps up to smack a wet kiss on Jacob’s lips before he leaps onto stage, crumpled up speech in hand and the towel in the other.

  
  


“Don’t worry, I’ll make this short. Not because I want to but I think I’m going to keep crying if I hit over five minutes.” The crowd, also out of tears, cheer and smile fondly at the red-faced groom. Kevin smooths out the crinkles in his dress shirt and sits up straight for the last one. The hand is still on his knee and though Kevin desperately wants to put his head on Juyeon’s shoulders, he holds back just a little longer.

  
  


“As you’ve heard so far, they’ve painted me in a much brighter light than I would myself, because this is how I felt at the time. First, very sorry for myself for continuing to be in love and yearn desperately for someone I had essentially given permission to leave me, and second, incredibly jealous of this singer I’d learnt so much about from Jaehyun, and who frankly, sounded like an angel on Earth, both literally and figuratively.” 

  
  


“When I heard about Jacob from Jaehyun, he did sound like a wonderful person, and to Jaehyun’s credit, he did try to get us to meet up, but our times never aligned because I was diurnal as a doctor and Jacob very much nocturnal as a singer. It came to a point where I had to bite the bullet, because it hurt hearing Jaehyun speak of someone else in such a way that he did Jacob, like they were in love. Like how I thought he used to talk about us. Then, when Jacob kindly harassed me outside my workplace, I thought I was going to break for real. Staying with my brother and away from the home and person I’d missed so much was doing awful things for my heart and mind, and seeing the supposed culprit of all, I couldn’t help but feel very, very bitter.” He turns and mouths to them ‘I love you!’ with an extra pout that has the audience squirming in their seats, and the two of them throw him a thumbs up and gesture for him to carry on.

  
  


“But Jacob was willing to give up just as much as I would to see Jaehyun happy with me, which I thought was completely out of the picture at this point. He was going to uproot his whole life in this city for me, to see Jaehyun with me rather than with him, because clearly, he felt that we were happier together than apart and without him in the picture. I had to disagree and the conversation didn’t get anywhere after that. And then he showed up again outside the hospital and I had just gotten out of a ten-hour surgery and was not keen on going on a date with my ex-boyfriend’s new lover but again, our love story was never quite a normal one.” 

  
  


“He took me home, asked me all of these small but meaningful, insightful questions despite all he already knew of me at this point through the rose-tinted perspective of our shared person and well, it made me feel special to say the least. Jacob is as clear as day with all he does and says, and when I said I’d be down to see him again, the joy on his face made my broken heart skip a beat. And I repeat, the rest is history. Though Jaehyun loved us first and us two later on, we all carved our hearts out to fit two people each and it worked, because I did manage to put a ring on it.” The two sitting down show off their diamonds and another round of whoops echo within the home. 

  
  


“To Cob and Jae, my twin flames who I could not be be without, eternity is going to be so fun with you two.” Younghoon blows kisses and they receive them as shots to the chest, to the audience’s mirth. Kevin sheds another tear before clapping and whooping. He’s the one who told Younghoon to include the Beyonce reference and the man listened.

  
  


The three of them have revolved in orbit around each other since forever it feels like now, and it fills Kevin with so much unadulterated joy to know that they’ve gotten their happy ending. 

Eric is barely holding on and Juyeon tells his brother to get a grip while in tears himself, and Kevin squeezes his hand this time. Juyeon looks up at him, wearing the dopey smile he does when he’s feeling emotional and Kevin is reminded again. 

They will be okay. They will be okay. They will be okay.

  
  


ACT V: NIGHTFALL

_Good things happen at the coming of the moon too, right?_

  
  


The night ends with more dancing and singing, before the Bae’s, Kim’s, and Lee’s say their own little bits to their sons, that brings them on a higher note when they all air out each man’s dirty laundry, which had all three of them flushed from the neck up and Kevin is definitely keeping every single word in his long-term memory. 

When it comes to an official end, having snapped all of their photos in the afternoon and Kevin hugging Jacob for what felt like millenia after saying his own speech earlier that day, they get their special gifts, sign in the book with their customised polaroids stuck on the pages, Kevin holds onto Juyeon’s arm just when Sunwoo carries an inebriated Changmin out of the room.

  
  


“Stay here a bit?” Juyeon stares at him and puts his blazer on top of Kevin’s shoulders when he notices him shivering even with his own suit jacket on. 

  
  


“Okay.” He lets Kevin lead the way, and they find themself out on the balcony. The stars are in full display for them tonight, the air clear and crisp and much unlike what they’re both used to, light pollution clouding all but the moon if they’re lucky to see her. But here, everything falls away for them. 

  
  


“I’m sorry Juyeon.” Kevin utters first. He’s always been this way, the first to say the two words, but this time calls for his initiative first. 

  
  


“Me too Kevin, I’m sorry.” They’re not quite looking each other in the eyes, gazes falling onto the moonlight that dapples the vines and leaves enshrouding the balustrades and the doorframe before they ultimately land on each other. 

  
  


“No, I— I should’ve told you how I felt. Before.” Kevin knows it was wrong of him to keep it bottled inside when he knew it was a matter of when not if, that it’d come crashing out. High pressure and even lower volume makes for a shuddering expulsion, and Kevin thought he’d grown out of that habit since being with Juyeon.

  
  


“Kev, I— I’m sorry I didn’t notice earlier.” They always go back and forth like this, Juyeon apologising for the distance he couldn’t make when Kevin needed him at the precipice with him, and Kevin not letting Juyeon know that he moved at all. 

  
  


“Ju, baby, it’s not your fault. Even if I’m feeling like fucking shit, it doesn’t mean I get to hide it from you and— and explode at you like that.” Juyeon’s eyes are glimmering with the makeup he used earlier today, and even after all this time, seeing him so close has his breath catching on the walls of his throat. 

  
  


“I knew you were already pulling yourself thin and working so hard, so I needed to pull my own weight for us.” Juyeon doesn’t hesitate from wrapping his arms around Kevin’s torso and setting his chin down on his shoulder, leaning backwards on the balcony. 

  
  


“It must have been hard,” is what he says, and Kevin throws his arms around his boyfriend’s neck and holds on even tighter. The warmth seeps through his skin instantly.

  
  


He’s glad Juyeon doesn’t apologise again. He takes the first step in the right direction for the both of them.

  
  


“I’ll do better next time,” Juyeon whispers into his hair and the wind blows through their bodies like they’re a part of the landscape.

  
  


“Me too, me too.”

  
  


As the moonlight glistens over their bodies, it beams itself out like white light breaking at the surface and diffusing across the expanse of the sky. 

  
  


In the coming of the moon, Juyeon and Kevin fall back together. They’re okay again. 

  
  


Warm, warm, warm.

  
  


EPILOGUE: DAWN

The sun is cast over Juyeon’s sleeping figure like liquid gold on marble. He’s still wearing that Vetements shirt Kevin bought for him last month, has been for the entire month Kevin thinks, but Juyeon’s adamant on hand-washing it every single time and making sure none of the crystals fall off. 

Having come back from another interview with a potential firm and seeing his boyfriend like this, napping with his entire body outstretched like an overgrown cat on their queen-sized makes Kevin want to conk out right beside him. Their pup has already taken Juyeon’s left side, so there’s a perfect curve for him on the right. He insteads opts for sitting in the armchair by the window of their bedroom, and takes out his sketchbook again to stave off his fatigue. 

  
  


They got back to Korea a few kilos heavier but hearts lighter than ever, and Changmin had only pressed their hand onto Kevin’s palm at the terminal when he tells the entire story and smiled.

  
  


“If you need someone, you know I’m always here for you right?” They’d said, eyes shining as always and smelling faintly of the sandalwood perfume Sunwoo bought for them on their trip.

  
  


“Right back at you Min.” They squeezed Kevin’s hand tighter and Kevin thinks he has much more to ask them the next time they meet.

  
  


Starting off with his favourite style, the calligraphy he’d missed doing since having immersed himself in geometric shapes and lines for weeks now, he takes inspiration from his novels sitting on the bookshelf. And between the well-loved and the freshly-bought, is a box.

  
  


He’d bought them just a month after they came back, going to a jeweller’s on the weekend and getting them custom-made. One had Kevin’s Korean name in hanja engraved on the side, and the other Juyeon’s. 

Chanhee caught sight of them when he came over, being nosy and peeping through Kevin’s desk.

  
  


“Right here?! In your shared bedroom!” Chanhee hadn’t gasped at the thought of the engagement rings but the fact that Kevin had been so free with leaving them out in the open.

  
  


“Please, Juyeon isn’t going to bat an eye at the box. You know him.” Kevin had responded lazily, and Chanhee raised an eyebrow.

  
  


“ _Okay_ Kevin, if you say so.”

  
  


Safe to say, Chanhee is definitely going to be his second best man after Jacob. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

  
  
  


He stares at them for a little while, opening the box and watching them glint in the sunlight.

  
  


A groan comes from behind him and he turns his head to see his boyfriend arching off the bed, again like a cat, and his back pops deafeningly. Tofu jumps at the sound, and scurries off the bed and to her own outside. 

  
  


“Woah there old man, have a good sleep?”

  
  


“You came home? I didn’t even hear you.” Juyeon mumbles, blinking the sleep out of his eyes and Kevin catches a sliver of his stomach from underneath his shirt, and like a teenager in love, blushes like mad.

  
  


“Whaddya working on?” Juyeon gets off the bed and shuffles back into his slippers to flop his arms over Kevin’s shoulders.

  
  


“Just some calligraphy.” It’s a quote from The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, one he hasn’t touched in a while but he remembers clearly, as does the rest of the world.

  
  


“‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’ That’s profound, I should probably read this huh.” The literature graduate picks it up from the table, completely missing the _open_ box with the _shiny_ ring in it. 

  
  


“Aren’t you going to ask me why I chose this one specifically?” Kevin preempts the conversation, hoping Juyeon will catch it.

  
  


“I mean, it does sound pretty cool. Like if you want something, everything within the realm of your existence and a million other things will work in your favour to help you get it, right? I think we could apply that mindset to a lot of things and—”

  
  


“Juyeon, would you be keen on spending the rest of your life with me?” 

  
  


Juyeon brings the book down from his face, stares down at Kevin, and blinks.

  
  


“Kevin?” Kevin stands up, puts his sketchbook on his desk, and stares at him back.

  
  


“Juyeon?” Juyeon looks at him with wide, wide eyes, blinks again and finally, _finally_ catches sight of what’s in Kevin’s hand.

  
  


“ _Are you playing a prank on me?”_ Juyeon murmurs in Korean, and tries to grab the ring from Kevin but Kevin brings his hand up high, and slowly, before Juyeon, gets down on one knee.

  
  


At golden hour too, Juyeon still looks as beautiful as he did the first time they met in that dive club downtown, painted in neon strobe lights. 

  
  


“ _Lee Juyeon_ , the Virginia to my Vita, Oscar to my Alfred, would you give me the honour of being your loving husband for the rest of our mortal lives?”

  
  


Juyeon is silent, save for the tiny gasps he makes when he looks down at Kevin’s hand. 

  
  


“Yes— Yes. Always.” Juyeon’s eyes well up when Kevin slides it on his hand and before Kevin can show off the matching one, Juyeon picks him up and spins him around in the air, laughing at his squeals while Kevin throws his hands around Juyeon’s neck and locks his ankles around his back. He kisses Kevin once, soft, then goes in for another, and another, and another.

  
  


Tofu comes dashing into the room at the sound of Kevin, and they bring their dog, now a happy seven-months-old, in between them.

  
  


With the moon watching over them as she always is, and Kevin’s true north pointing right in front of him, the universe truly did conspire with him to allow him this pretty sight for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> it's favourite line time!  
> [twt](https://twitter.com/junkazamas) \+ [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/jukevs) \+ my [dreamwidth](https://caihong.dreamwidth.org/2168.html) post!


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